A global crisis has been unwinding for more than a year now. Our media blames the banks who bet on our real estate market with money they didn’t have. This led to the current economic situation. I don’t support the despicable greed these financial institutions exhibited, but I do look further into the root cause of our nation’s downturn — and it all starts with our parents. The baby-boomer generation has been living beyond its means for more than a decade, and we are feeling the effects. Our parents’ generation has indulged themselves in unnecessary luxuries for which they could never pay. With the average adult carrying thousands of dollars of debt each month, they simply spent more money than they had. This created a false economy with false growth. Essentially, the over use of credit cards and buying homes our parents could not afford created a mirage that more money existed in than in actuality; it had to unravel at some point. The banks amplified the problem with leveraging.However, the foundation of our nation’s issue rests in overspending. And we, as a generation of new ideas, need to recognize the consequences of living beyond our means. Take a lesson from our parents’ greed: live appropriately. To our parents: “Stop looking for a scapegoat, and start living within your means.”James Chasseeaccounting senior